First class session

 I was up at 8:30 in the morning which is about right, since I went to bed "around" 1AM. 

I packed things to ship, and let here at about a quarter to 3. Lasts night I'd bought a couple of shirts and a new pair of sweat pants at Ross,  and everything fit OK. So I was layered up nicely for the cold. I dropped off the packages at the downtown post office, and rode over to Diridon Station, which has been re-done with new paint on a bunch of things and new "graphics" on the shelters etc. That's kind of nice. 

I got down there with plenty of time to spare, and rode around the shopping center the class is in, and found the bike rack which is good because with some of these shopping centers, they don't like bikes parked randomly around. 

I used up some time looking through my books, sitting on a planter in front of the Purple Onion, and will have to try to remember to bring some nuts for the little birds there next time.

When it was class time we students gradually filtered in. It's 8 students, 4 gals and 4 guys. And it's quite a mix, a regular United Nations. I've got a Russian or Ukrainian, not sure which yet, guy named Vladimir on my right, a guy from the island of Dominica to my left whose brother lives in Switzerland, and there's an Indian guy on the other side of him. The gals are a mix too. 

Our teacher is a wonderful Irani lady, and the class went well. We learned some very basic things and the French pronunciation of the alphabet. The funniest one is "y", which is called something like igrik, pronounced ee-greek, or the ee sound as used by the Greeks, at least that's what we were told. 

The only possible hitch is that the book and workbook are set up assuming you have a smart phone in your hand and that's how you access the audio files, which it looks like we're going to use a lot. You scan a QR code for each page. I'll have to see if I can use my laptop. 

When class was done it was good and cold out, but I was OK due to my dressing for it. The light rail on the way back had plenty of bums, but no one acting crazy so that was good. I rode it up to Karina Station so I just had the short ride back here. That station's had a make-over too and interestingly the trash cans have been changed to a type with transparent sides and look pretty easy to get into too. I think the idea is that if the trash pickers can see exactly what's in there, they can see if it's worth it at all to dig in a particular can, and if they do dig, they can go right to the stuff they want, and make less of a mess.